The Categories Game is one of those essential no-prep ESL activities that every teacher should have ready. It’s simple, fun, adaptable, and ideal for filling a 20–40 minute slot in any lesson. I’ve played this game with students of all ages and levels, and it always gets them thinking, laughing, and speaking.
This team-based vocabulary review game is adapted from the popular party game Scattergories, and it’s excellent for reactivating recently learned words, reinforcing old vocabulary, and encouraging quick thinking under pressure.
How to Play the Categories Game
Draw a 2×3 grid (or more, depending on time) on the board and write a category heading at the top of each square. Categories can include topics like animals, countries, food, jobs, or adjectives.
Divide your class into two or three teams and let them choose fun team names. Give each team a blank sheet of paper to recreate the category layout as their answer sheet.
Choose a letter of the alphabet. Write it next to your table so you don’t repeat yourself later.
As quickly as possible teams must try to think of a word that fits each category and which begins with the given letter. They should write their answers under the appropriate category on their answer sheet.
For example, if category headings include Animals and Drinks, and the letter you’ve chosen is B, teams might write Bear and Beer in the appropriate categories. The game can be made more difficult by choosing more challenging letters.
As soon as a team has a word for every category they should shout stop! The other team(s) must immediately stop writing and put their pens down.
Take the answers from the first team to finish and give a point for each word that fits correctly, then collect the answers from the other teams and award further points. If there are allegations of cheating you can always check the teams’ answers on their answer sheets. The team with the most points at the end of x rounds is the winner.
One way to score the game is to make marks inside the category square for each correct answer. Either use a different colour for each team or use a different symbol, e.g. I,O,X.
Possible Categories
Here’s a list of categories which you could use when playing the category game.
- countries
- games and sports
- cities
- animals
- food and drink
- verbs
- adjectives
- jobs
- famous people
- things you find in the bathroom/kitchen
- things you take on holiday
- fruit and vegetables
- things that fly
- things that are yellow
- items you can buy in IKEA
- things you find in a refrigerator
- things that are cold
- things you find in an office
- things that are round
- things which are scary
- things to do with Christmas
- things with wheels
- things in the garden
- things you can turn off, etc.
Categories for Kids
When playing the categories game with younger learners, use simpler, more relatable topics like:
- things with wheels
- fruits and vegetables
- games that use a ball
- musical instruments
- types of sweets / candy
- types of weather
- hobbies
- pizza toppings
- things people are afraid of
- movies / movie characters
- tv shows
- drinks
- singers / bands
Looking for another easy classroom activity? Check out ESL speaking activities for plenty of simple setup, high engagement tasks..
Play Online
If you are teaching online, try this online version of Scattergories .